Innocence
by Sinclair Hannon
Summary: She had been the innocent angel from his childhood, until she ran away.


Kenzie ran her fingers through her hair, effectively pushing it away from her face. This did this again a few times before quickly grabbing a hair clip and keeping her hair out of her face with it so she could look at her make up supplies to organize a look for herself. She had arranged to meet a Professor of some sort, and he was hoping to introduce a few of his friends to her, so she had every intention of being seen as in control and capable of herself as possible. She refused to be seen as a child anymore; she was eighteen and legally an adult.  
She picked up a face cream from her dressing table, spreading some of it gently on her face, making sure that it was evenly applied. She smiled a little after she had placed the tiniest amount on her lids to help keep her eye shadow stay longer. Picking up her collection of eye shadows, she started to give herself a smokey eye look, but in purple instead of black. She made sure it was even on each eye, then put her eye shadows away. As she did, she remembered a family that she had stayed with when she was younger. They were nice enough to her, and found her love of mischief amusing, but made sure she didn't go near one of the men. Of course, they didn't think twice about letting her go off with that man's son. She wasn't harmed, except for the fact that she had developed the worst crush on him after she had left them behind on her 'travels'. She sighed softly, making herself stop thinking about it, and putting on some lip balm. Once she was done, she took the clip out of her hair and started brushing through her long locks, admiring the blue color she had put in it less than a week ago. If the people she had known when she was younger could see her now, they would be amazed at how she could appear as such a confident young lady. Ironically, she was a terrified little girl on the inside.

When Kenzie left her place, she took a deep breath to remind herself that no one could see how she was different from everyone else, at least they could see how what differences she wanted them to see. She slipped her hands in her jeans pockets and started walking in the direction of the mansion she was to meet the Professor Xavier and his friends. Or were they associates? She couldn't remember, but she knew that he at least wanted her to meet them. Once in a while she bite her lip, and had to reign her imagination in, to stop scaring herself. Twenty minutes later, she was knocking on the door to the mansion.

A few days later, Kenzie found herself going shopping with Storm, since the number of dresses she owned was zero, and there was some fancy dinner happening to welcome back one of the guys, and to welcome Kenzie, Storm had suddenly whisked her off to find a suitable dress. Needless to say, Kenzie wasn't all too thrilled to be forced into wearing a dress, but Storm had promised that it was only for that night. The first store they went into was the worst; every dress had beading and details that made them shine. Storm even looked uncomfortable there, so they quickly moved on to another store with less sparkles in it.

On the third store, Kenzie had slowly warmed up to the idea of seriously looking for a dress, since Storm had merely shown her one or two suggestions, but left most of it to her. She liked that, not having someone force their opinion onto her. She was looking through some of the party dresses in this store, and admiring how some of them weren't all that bad. She didn't want a full length dress, so had skipped those, and was looking at the various dresses that ended above the knee. After a few minutes, she spotted the one that she really wanted. And when she pointed it out to Storm, she was thrilled to hear Storm say she liked the dress too, and that she should go try it on. Happy that she finally had someone to go shopping with, without being forced to get things she didn't like.  
"It looks stunning." Storm said, smiling at her like she really meant it when Kenzie came out of the fitting room. The dress felt so right to Kenzie, and the color of it was perfect. She went back into the changing room to put her jeans and shirt back on, and went to pay for the dress, but Storm stopped her.  
"Allow me. And consider it a gift to say welcome to the institute." storm said before heading to the till to pay for the dress. Kenzie was polite enough to just thank her and let her go off, but she was determined to let it be the only thing Storm paid for. She browsed the store whilst Storm paid, picking out a pair of black strapped heels, and a simple but beautiful pair of earrings, and went to pay for them herself.

Storm was waiting for her when she got to the door.  
"Which shoes did you get?" Storm asked, making Kenzie smile.  
"These ones. I don't wear heels often, but when I do, I like them to be pretty memorable." She said, showing them to Storm. Storm just laughed softly.  
"They are amazing. Just don't fall on your face wearing them." She said. Kenzie shrugged.  
"I know how to walk in them." She said, smiling. The rest of the walk back to the car was passed with idle conversation, about anything and everything. Kenzie found out why Storm chose her name, which was because of her control of the weather and how she could literally kick up a storm. Kenzie explained why she got the angel wings tattoo on her back; because it was how she got her wings. The design had been specific to make it look like her wings took the form of her tattoo when she wasn't leaving them out on display. Their fighting skills weren't so different either; Storm had learnt to fight for herself, and Kenzie had learnt how to fight to keep up with the boys that she had grown up with. Except that the boys had just learnt how to brawl, and she had actually learnt three styles of martial arts. And by the time the two of them had gotten back to the mansion, Storm had convinced Kenzie to let her do her make up for her.

And Kenzie didn't regret it. The eye shadow was light and made her eyes pop, which she loved. Her hair was styled in a half pony, with the front back combed a tiny amount. And it all matched the dress perfectly. She was nicely relaxed and confident when she went down and started to socialize with the others. She enjoyed the others' company. And she even danced a round each with Bobby, Beast, and Piotr. And on a challenge from Storm, she spent twenty minutes convincing Logan to dance with her. And apparently he was a sucker for angel eyes because they were dancing to a slower jazzy number. She smiled, laughing softly at Logan complaining about her making him dance, yet he knew the steps and looked like he was enjoying himself. He spun her out at arms length, and pulled her back in, but she froze when she saw who the welcome home party was for. He was standing there, smiling and talking to Professor Xavier. Logan let her go, watching her.  
"You okay, kid?" He asked, noticing how she had suddenly tensed up. She nodded her head a little, trying to not let him worry.  
"Then why do you look like a ghost? Do you know him?" Logan asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.  
"No... I, uh... I knew Remy a long time a go. We haven't seen each other for three years." Kenzie said softly, looking at the floor. Logan sighed.  
"I see. Go take a break, kid. You've been on you feet all this time." He said, gently pushing her in the direction of a couch. she did as he suggested, and sat down for a few minutes, not noticing Logan go speak to the Professor when Remy had moved on. With her thoughts haunting her, she moved to go outside to get some air. She had made herself forget the crush she had on him before she ran away. She couldn't even remember what he called her when she was growing up. She knew it was something simple, but it meant so much. It used to make her blush, and now she couldn't remember it.

at least not until she heard his voice, and the words made her hold her breath.


End file.
